[Nik]

Hi Hirsch, Hi Kelly,

please give me yours e-mail address and I'll give you the pic. I have just one pic at the moment, the designer told me that this is a very hi quality amp., but not the same class of my R-10H... even the price is different, but he told me that this amp. sounds better than the EAR HP-4 that he knows very well...

Nicola

PS1:
The cheaper price of the OTL dipends form the cost of the transformers that is very hi in my amp. This means that this OTL is not in the same class of my R-10H, is a different project. The designer Silvano Sivieri from http://www.olimpiaudio.com/ thinks a single ended amp. goes better for the R-10 cans...

PS2:
Even Hart (http://www.audioadvancements.com/products.html has built a new OTL amp. for the R-10, I have 4 pictures of it. But IMO this is just a new version of the EARMAX... The price is 2100$ (exagerated...!!!).


Replacement pads for the R-10:

You can order the replacement pads here: http://www.audiocubes.com/advanced_s...DR+R10&x=8&y=5 at the cheaper price of 255$ a pair. (Cheaper respect to the http://www.tangal.com/html/index.html that sells them for 399$).

This is the e-mail I recieved from http://www.audiocubes.com/

"The R10 replacement pads do come with instruction manual that gives the
steps to swapping the pads. The problem is that it's in Japanese. We will
be translating the manual and make it available at our website. If you
would like, you can already place an order for the pads and as soon as we
have the translation completed, we will publicize in our website. I hope
this helps. Thank you".

Kohn
info@audiocubes.com

 

[pigmode]

Quote:

In a nutshell, I found that the HP-1 was nowhere as transparent, airy, detailed and had a much narrower soundstage compared with the R10.

(shrugs) Air? Detail? The HP-1 has it over the R-10. The R-10, as has been mentioned above, has a more polite sound.

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by pigmode (shrugs) Air? Detail? The HP-1 has it over the R-10. The R-10, as has been mentioned above, has a more polite sound.

These are characteristics of the input system, not the R10. The R10 is a far more detailed headphone that the HP-1. I think that it tends to sound "polite" if underpowered. Give it some power to work with, and it loses the polite sheen and simply reflects the source. This is a difficult headphone to feed properly. It's taken be several months to get there. The HP-1 is a very musical headphone, and is my favorite outside of the R10. It will always have more bass than the R10. It will still sound great in systems where the R10 sounds awful. However, it is not as able as the R10 to take full advantage of a high quality source and amp.

 

[pigmode]

For me, the HP-1 had a far more airy and detailed sound than the R-10 and the differences were not small or subtle. These were the setups:

RKV/ AH! Njoeb Tjoeb 4000
RKV/ Sony 333
EMP/ AH! Njoeb Tjoeb 4000
EMP/ Sony 333

Now I agree that that both CDPs used are not quite the thing, but considering the consistent results, I find it hard to believe that the sound signiture of both phones will change much. Both phones were used with both systems. The HP-1 had the most airy sound I've heard yet.

Maybe we're talking apples and oranges because I wasn't clear enough. What I really meant was HF detail, not macro-dynamics and such. For the latter I'd damn well expect the Sony to win considering its price. My impressions are more general considering the short time I've had with each phone. The HP-1 has qualities that jump out at you, and the R-10 probably has qualities that take time to percieve. Makes sense to me.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

I thought the R10 is supposed to sound more THIN when underpowered? Then it would tend to sound more 'airy' and 'detailed' albeit also 'crappy'--that's close to what I heard that day

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by Joe Bloggs I thought the R10 is supposed to sound more THIN when underpowered? Then it would tend to sound more 'airy' and 'detailed' albeit also 'crappy'--that's close to what I heard that day

We may be using different vocabularies (very common in audio!). Underpowering (if that's even what's happening) would result in a couple of phenomena. First, low end extension would suffer. Bass would be thin, and instruments would lack the low frequency fundamentals that give them impact. IMO this is the "politeness" that is sometimes attributed to the R10. Further, dynamic range of the headphone would tend to be compressed, again lending a sense of politeness. The headphones tend to sound "flat", and don't convey the musical intent well. The effect may go unnoticed in certain types of music.

I'm mystified by what Pigmode heard. I've listened to both the HP-1 and R10 a lot. HF detail is one area where the HP-1 can't match the R10, IMO. This is the area where I think the RS-1 also is better than the HP-1 (note: the HP-1 conveys the music much better than the RS-1 IMO. HF detail isn't everything). The macrodynamics is where I'd say the HP-1 trounces the R10, unless the system is exactly right and all the stars are in their proper alignments. So, we're probably not speaking the same language.

 

[pigmode]

Okay. But airy and detailed is a little different than thin and strained.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

I'd say it was airy, detailed, thin and strained

Depending on the time of the day, recording used, my mood and the CD player's alignment

 

[kelly]

pigmode
To me, the HP-1 sounds tonally more linear which can sometimes make details easier to perceive. I'd say both headphones have an airy quality about them but one tradeoff of the continuous soundstage of the R10 would be a loss of the sharpest focus. Whether this tradeoff is worth it for me or not isn't something I'd be able to decide without a LOT more listening under more ideal circumstances. The tonal linearity and accuracy of timbre are key to what make the HP-1 a better headphone to me, soundstage issues aside.

 

[eric343]

Damn, I gotta hear me one of them R10s. Hirsch, when/if I get some more time (next summer?), how about I put some EL2009s to use and lend you an R10-optimized META42, if you'll lend me your R10s first so I can optimize it?

and Nik, if you'll email me the pic (eric343 at 2alpha dot com), then I can host it, full size, on my webserver.

 

[eric343]

Quote:

these are the two OTL amps. for the R-10. On ebuilt by Hart and the second by my designer Silvano Sivieri.

Nik's Piks: (I couldn't resist

)

 

[eric343]

OK, at request I've reduced the last pic to a more reasonable size (nobody here is running anything less than 800x600, right?). The original is still availible in all its glory with a -big suffix in the directory (http://www.drsue.net/images/r10-otl/)

 

[KR...]

The full versions call also be seen at my headphone lust page which can be found in my title of all things

 

[Nik]

For any questions about the "italian" OTL amp. for the R-10, you can contact the designer directly, he understands and speaks english, this is his e-mail address:

olimpiart@tiscali.it

his name is Silvano Sivieri, very nice person...

Nicola

PS:
I shipped my R-10H for the new pot. ALPS RK50 (finally arrived) that looks incredible!!!! I'm even thinking to modify the wooden cover...I hope to put some others photos of the amp. soon.

eric343, send me your e-mail if you want the pics full size.

 

[eric343]

Nik: I have the full size version of the last pic, the others are at the size I got them in...

and do you mean that the R-10H was running using an Alps Blue Velvet (RK27) or Alps Black Beauty (RK40)? How does the RK27 or RK40 compare to the RK50?